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Many people gathered in a sunlit room.

Building success at TakeUP

Many people gathered in a sunlit room.
25/04/2024
2 minutes

At the TakeUP event, held on 16 April 2024 in Lille, France, Interreg North Sea projects geared up towards success. The energetic vibe felt during the day was due in no small part to the wealth of ideas shared by the project community itself. 

Our second takeUP workshop welcomed about 55 participants including 33 people from 25 North Sea projects approved in Call 2 and 3. 

The aim of this event is to present a framework guiding projects to build their chances of capitalisation (meaning transfer and reuse of project work beyond the project itself). We are keen to see capitalisation happen as it signifies durable success.

Using the metaphor of a journey, the concept involves 7 essentials which projects must 'pack' in order for their expeditions to reach their 'North Star' -  maximum positive impacts. Throughout the day, the participants were guided through the framework, using their own project as the basis. At the end, each project had a workbook full of ideas and plans for how to capitalise on their work. 

The Région Hauts-de-France kindly hosted the event, which included a warm welcome speech by the Region's EU Director, Anne Wetzel.

Three people smiling at the camera.

Christian Byrith with Anne Wetzel and Amandine Dupont from Région Hauts-de-France.

People seated around a round table, laughing

Having fun was an important ingredient of the day!

People in conversation around a table.

There were lots of opportunities for exchange.

A small group of people in a game.

How do you like to relax? Fun icebreaking activity.

An open latop and papers strewn out on a table.

The workbook used at the event. Photo: Benedict Gardner.

High spirits and willingness to share

Throughout the day, the projects generously shared their experiences and innovative approaches with each other. 

Prior to the event, the projects had been tasked to carry out a so-called "impact challenge" to develop an internal impact statement. Two project representatives - Frances Kannekens from MANABAS COAST and Bieke Blauwblomme from the Data for All project - shared their challenges and approaches to motivating the entire partnership to take part of this process. For example, MANABAS COAST has successfully applied tools such as the "Circle of influence". 

A young lady holding a microphone in a sunny room.

Frances Manneken (MANABAS COAST) shared interesting aproaches to engaging the partners in capitalisation. 

A young lady is speaking to an audience, holding a microphone.

Bieke Blauwblomme (Data for All) on the need to motivate partners for joint capitalisation ground work. 

At the secretariat, we are now mulling over all the good ideas and approaches to capitalisation shared by our amazing projects. We will definitely use them to reinforce our support for the next chapter of our projects' capitalisation journey! 

At this point, we hope everybody had a safe journey home. A warm thank you to Région Hauts-de-France and our National Contact Points for supporting his event! 

Find resources from TakeUP

Click the link below to find more images and download the presentations from TakeUP:

Go to the TakeUP resources page